


Orbital Decay

by siriusmajoris



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: F/M, Horror, Murder, Suicide, Time Loop, cosmic horror, oh boy we're off to a great start here aren't we., suicide by cop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:47:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28864278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siriusmajoris/pseuds/siriusmajoris
Summary: Danny finds himself caught in the middle of a time loop with seemingly no way out.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Valerie Gray
Comments: 26
Kudos: 30





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Pesky_Poltergeist for helping me plot this <333

_orbital decay: a process that leads to gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach (the periapsis) over many orbital periods._

Red Huntress holds Danny by the neck, pressed against the wall.

"What the _fuck_ do you mean, 'kill me,' you're not supposed to ask to be killed," Huntress says indignantly, staring at him in utter disbelief.

"I said what I said. Kill me." Danny smiles and cocks his head to the side. "Come on, isn't this what you always wanted? I'll be dead and there won't even be resistance! One and done, shoot me and get on with your day." Danny moves his head in as closely as he can with his neck pressed to the wall. "You know, you'd be doing everyone a favor."

Red Huntress tightens her grip.

"I'm _asking_ you to kill me, this is guilt free. Just point your gun at my heart and _boom_ , done."

"Why do you need _me_ to do it, why not just do it yourself if you're so determined to die again?" she growls.

Danny shrugs. "Honestly? You just happened to be nearby and it seemed easier that way." A sharp grin crosses his lips. "This isn't personal."

"Fine. You want to die so badly? I'll make sure the job _gets done._ "

Red Huntress presses the ectogun against his chest, pulls the trigger.

The bang echoes through the room and rings through his ears as Danny slinks to the floor.

"Thanks," he murmurs.

His vision darkens, and Danny smiles again.

As Danny's senses go numb and the world seems to vanish around him, a deep voice calls out from the dark.

**TRY AGAIN.**

" _Fuck,_ " Danny whispers, finally losing consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

Danny's parents were always going on about some invention or another, or ghosts. It shouldn't surprise him that they were "working on their biggest project yet."

He'd walked into the kitchen, suitcase in hand and bracing himself for whatever their latest work was, and wondering if he could dodge working on it and actually have a _break_ during winter break.

His parents sit at the kitchen table, too absorbed in diagrams and scientific notes to notice their son. This wasn't unusual: Danny often dropped by, sometimes without warning. Today, they'd had several weeks' warning— _"yes, I'm coming home for winter break, I can't wait to see you, too"_ —but it seems they'd forgotten what day it was.

Danny shifts, intentionally making noise to disrupt their work. He grins as they look up, realization dawning on their features. His mother is the first to get up, practically bursting with excitement as she jumps out of her chair to greet him.

"Danny!"

She almost knocks him over with a hug and he gently sets down his things to return it.

In most families, he imagines that coming home from college for winter break is generally met with more fanfare, even if he lives close by. In _his_ family, coming-home-niceties consisted of:

"Great to see you Danny-o!" His father lumbers over.

"Oh this is perfect Jack," his mother beams, ruffling Danny's hair. "You're just in time, dear."

His father beams in turn, patting his shoulder. "We're working on our biggest project yet!"

Danny smiles, shifting his weight to his other foot. "As much as I'm sure you'd _love_ to put me to work, Dad, I need to put my stuff away."

His father chuckles. "Science waits for no one, Dan—"

His mother elbows him. "Nonsense, dear, go make yourself comfortable. Are you hungry, should I make you some food? Do you need help carrying anything?"

Danny shakes his head. A meal was a trap that really meant poring over their work, and while he's genuinely interested in seeing what they're up to, he'd rather it isn't five minutes after he got home. "I've got it, thanks."

.

Danny walks to his room, glancing at Jazz's room as he passes by. It doesn't seem changed since he'd visited during Thanksgiving. _Great, I'm the first one home._ So he just needs to dodge his parents and the lab until she gets home—once she was here, she'd be the buffer he needs so he can relax.

He doesn't mind helping his parents with their research, not really. Sometimes he felt like he learned more from their studies than his own, even. But this last semester had been _rough_ and he's not in the mood to spend his entire break at work.

Danny drops his bag in the corner, flopping down on his bed and pulling out his phone.

[6:20 pm] Danny: anyone home

[6:20 pm] Sam: I wish

[6:20 pm] Tucker: I am

[6:21 pm] Sam: mom's insisting on celebrating winter break with dinner, wanna trade

[6:21 pm] Tucker: please any dinner your parents buy is good for me

[6:23 pm] Danny: free food from the fentons to anyone that wants to save me from my parents' research

[6:24 pm] Danny: tucker i mean you

[6:28 pm] Danny: tucker?

[6:29 pm] Sam: you said 'free food' i bet he's already on his way

[6:33 pm] Danny: tuck?

[6:37 pm] Tucker: sorry dude, apparently we're 'seeing a movie as a family'

[6:37 pm] Tucker: see you tomorrow?

"Well shit," he groans.

Nothing to it, then. He brushes his hair back, feeling a chill in the air as he pushes off the bed. He tugs on a sweater and makes his way back downstairs.

.

Danny steps into the kitchen, rubbing his arm and cracking a grin. "So, what's this big project?"

Both of his parents excitedly look away from their work.

"It's a portal, son."

"For ghosts," his mother interjects. "Or rather, to their world."

Danny cocks a brow. "I thought you were ghost _hunters_ ? Why do you want to let them _in_?" He walks further into the kitchen, taking a seat at the table.

"It's an important step in the field, dear. We can't fully understand ghosts if we don't know where they came from."

"Or how to send them back!" his father adds. The pair works in tandem for a moment, shuffling through papers. "Aha, there it is!" He slides his son a different paper, a diagram printed on blue.

"A blueprint?" Danny asks.

His mother nods. "The theory of it was easy enough—"

"We've had that part down since college!"

She smiles. "—but lately we made a breakthrough in putting it into practice."

Danny raises a brow. "So you've designed a _portal_ to _another dimension_ to study ghosts?"

His father laughs. "No kiddo, we've built one!"

"What."

.

The moment he said _built_ Danny turned on his heels and immediately made his way to the lab, and maybe, _yes_ , he _did_ run a little in excitement. Danny couldn't help it—he'd expected his parents were making a weapon or something, not a _portal_ , and even he can't pass up the opportunity to see something so cool. His parents follow close behind, his mother yelling as he runs, "Remember honey, _don't_ touch anything! It's still just a prototype!"

Danny doesn't pay it any attention; he has no plans to touch anything, at least, not while his parents are looking.

Reaching the basement, Danny stops dead in his tracks to gape at the machine in front of him.

He'll admit, _normal_ people probably wouldn't be impressed by a black and yellow caution sign in the shape of a hexagon on the wall.

Fortunately, Danny was not normal people.

Danny _also_ immediately pressed the button near the machine that opened said hexagon door to reveal the actual machine within, which is far more impressive.

"Danny, didn't I _just_ say don't touch anything?" his mother says behind him, sighing and crossing her arms.

Danny shrugs, looking into the machine and being careful to stay behind the yellow caution line on the floor for his mother's sanity.

At a glance it looks more like a tunnel than a machine, like a hallway lined with thin neon lights and electronics, going just far enough back that it would be dark at the end of the machine without the lights on. His parents begin to explain its inner workings, all of the details of how, exactly, this would be able to split a hole in reality to enter another dimension.

To be entirely honest, Danny finds himself too caught up in admiring the details of the engineering to hear most of what they're saying, but he's sure he'll hear it all again soon enough with how much his father likes to repeat himself. Once, he nearly steps over the yellow line, but both of his parents stop explaining to reprimand him and remind him of the danger.

Fine, he'll have to wait until they're busy with something else to check out whatever they'd built the walls with.

Fifteen minutes after he tried to pass the line, something his mother says catches his attention.

"Wait, this thing doesn't actually _work?_ " he stutters. _All of this for a theory?_ he wonders. It wouldn't be the first time.

His parents frown.

"It's a prototype dear, and an incomplete one at that," his mom says.

"But we made a little one work in college, so I have no doubt we can do it again!" his dad interrupts.

Danny raises a brow. _So it's_ not _just theoretical._ "What happened to the one you built before?" he asks.

It seems an innocent enough question, but the grimaces his parents wear tells him it isn't. "Well, you know Uncle Vlad, dear?" his mom asks.

Danny nods. "Yes?" _Where is this going?_

"There was… an accident. We didn't account for all of the variables, and when we turned that prototype on… well… it exploded, and in the process it nearly killed Vlad," she explains.

His father, looking unusually grim, nods. "Ol' Vladdy spent a couple months in the hospital recovering from his injuries. But don't you worry, Danny, that was years ago, and Vladdy's just fine now! In fact, the only lasting effect was his hair graying from all the stress!"

Danny rolls his eyes. His father's overzealous attempts to reassure Danny aren't lost on him, and he decides to change the subject. "Okay, so it blew up in your faces. What does that have to do with it not working _now_ if you've had a couple decades to perfect it?"

"Power," his mom immediately responds. "The amount of power needed to turn this thing on is more than we can produce even with all our generators, let alone what we would need to sustain the portal."

_So it's an engineering problem._ Danny isn't stupid enough to think he can do better than his parents could do with years to think about the problem, but he _does_ know that it never hurts to get a fresh pair of eyes on a problem. Especially when that pair of eyes belongs to _their son_.

Danny opens his mouth to ask another question, but his stomach growls, betraying the fact that he _really_ needs to eat before he does anything else.

"Oh but you must be starving! Don't worry about it, dear, it's not going to solve itself overnight." And without a chance to protest even once, his mother is leading him back up the stairs to the kitchen for dinner, leaving the portal behind.

.

Jazz came home early the next morning, and while Danny is glad to have a buffer from his dad's intense excitement, he'll admit that he'd been hoping to have more time to geek out with his parents first. He loves his sister, but it's hard to compete when the portal isn't new to his parents and his sister has, once again, gotten sparkling grades on her path to graduation. _Especially_ when Danny is dodging telling his parents his own grades, which, while not failing, are definitely short of spectacular.

The next few days pass without incident-- Danny spends Monday and Tuesday with his family and Wednesday with Tucker and Sam. On Thursday, his window of opportunity finally opens up. Jazz, who had spent the past few days settling into being home again, said she'd be visiting friends who had just arrived back in town. His parents, meanwhile, had been too busy with their children to do any of their ghost patrols, and took the opportunity to make up for lost time.

Meaning, Danny gets to be alone in the house for the better part of the day and night.

Danny wakes up at noon, long after the house has emptied. He stumbles into the bathroom and lazily brushes his teeth while determining a course of action for the day. His parents can be counted on to be gone until, most likely, sunrise tomorrow knowing how his dad gets on patrol. Jazz is less predictable-- while her usual schedule says she'll be back around nine or ten tonight, Danny isn't sure if she's also planning on spending the night at her friend's place.

But he has a clear window of at least nine hours, and more as long as he's quiet enough to not alert Jazz what he's up to if she _does_ come home.

"Sweet," he mumbles to himself as he comes down the stairs. He pours himself a bowl of cereal and sits down next to his parents' notes, beginning his study of the blueprints and plan.

Okay, so maybe his mother had been leaving _a little bit_ out when she'd said that power was the problem. And honestly, he doesn't blame her. It's not that his parents think he's _stupid_ , per se, but rather that even in all their excitement, even _they_ know when to stop before something goes completely over someone's head.

That _something_ this time being the issue of what the portal should do after ripping a hole between dimensions. By design, the "rip" makes use of quantum superposition, allowing the portal to exist in both his reality and what his parents call the Ghost Zone. But quantum superposition has a decoherence time, after which it picks one state at random. For the portal to work, it needed to be indefinitely suspended in quantum superposition.

Danny huffs a breath, holding his forehead in his palm. "Okay, I'm definitely in over my head."

The smart thing to do would be to accept defeat. Danny's only a sophomore, not even halfway through his engineering degree. Quantum engineering is _miles_ out of his league and years ahead of anything he's studying, if he were even planning to go down that path.

But Danny is nothing if not stubborn, and a little roadblock like advanced quantum engineering wasn't about to get in his way of tinkering with his parents' invention.

Danny pulls out his phone.

[12:14 pm] Danny: tucker what do you know about quantum engineering

[12:14 pm] Tucker: nothing really, just that quantum computers are the future. why the sudden interest?

[12:15 pm] Danny: nah it's just something my parents said.

[12:24 pm] Danny: but if you wanted to keep something in quantum superposition how would you do it

[12:25 pm] Tucker: lol

[12:25 pm] Tucker: you don't.

[12:26 pm] Danny: Tucker I'm serious, I wanna know

[12:27 pm] Tucker: ok so

[12:30 pm] Tucker: your issue is decoherence. It's schrodinger's cat, dude. As long as it's in the box, it's alive and dead, but once you open the box it's going to be one or the other. In quantum physics it's because you're observing it, so it picks one. So to start you have to figure out how to observe it without messing it up. But regardless, the environment is slowly wearing on it until it picks one state to be, even without you messing with it.

[12:31 pm] Danny: not answering my question, tuck, I know what decoherence is

[12:32 pm] Tucker: oh really because if you did you wouldn't be asking ME how to do something actual quantum engineers can't do very well

[12:32 pm] Danny: come on tucker

[12:34 pm] Tucker: fine. IF in THEORY you wanted to keep something superpositioned, you'd have to eliminate as many environmental factors as possible. and seriously, dude, I'm not a quantum engineer, I only know the theory of it.

[12:35 pm] Danny: what if we built it in a vacuum?

Tucker must be sick of Danny's questions, because ten minutes later he hears a knock on his door.

Danny lazily walks to the door and unlocks it, and before he can even say _hello_ Tucker is lecturing him.

"Look, Danny, I don't know what the hell your parents said, but you can't just _decide_ to get rid of decoherence."

Tucker looks like he's just rolled out of bed, with a yellow sweatshirt, his staple red beret, and a pair of jeans lazily slapped together to make himself presentable for the outside world.

"I'm not saying _get rid of it_ just, you know, kinda… make it… not as big of a problem?"

Tucker slams his face into his hands. "Do you know how stupid you sound right now?" It's not a question. "Look, dude, if we could do that easily and reliably, don't you think we'd be doing it already?"

Danny shrugs.

"So why do you _really_ want to know? Because I know you, and I know your parents, and it was definitely _not_ 'just something they said.'" Tucker's voice still has that lecturing tone to it, but Danny knows Tucker just as well, and he recognizes that glimmer in his eyes that says _show me the technology that has you asking so many questions._

Danny, definitely against his parents' wishes, leads Tucker to the basement.

"Are you shitting me?" he asks, gaping at the machine.

"Nope."

"Your parents _built_ this?" Tucker asks.

Danny nods. "Yeah. Except it can't turn on and it can't do what it's supposed to. So really, I'd call it a marvel of useless technology, except they swear they made one work briefly in college."

"Danny, have I ever said your parents are _geniuses?_ " Tucker says, walking towards the machine.

Danny gives a noncommittal shrug and moves forward to follow. "They're usually too busy yelling about ghosts for the genius to really shine through." He crosses his arms and leans against the wall. "I can't say I've ever really believed everything they say, but if this thing works I might have some apologizing to do."

"No kidding," Tucker says, leaning closely to look at the electronics and machinery.

Danny brings Tucker up to speed within the hour. Tucker doesn't have the background to understand everything his parents built so he tells him everything relevant to the problem.

Which, as Tucker quickly makes _very_ clear, comes back to decoherence.

"But decoherence won't be a problem if you _can't even turn it on_ , Danny."

He nods. "Yeah, so, problem A, how do we get an ungodly amount of power into my basement."

Tucker nods in tandem. "Then problem B, how do we keep it superpositioned long enough to work."

Danny stretches his arms over his head before reaching for his phone. "I think I know how we can solve problem A."

Five minutes later, there's another knock on the door. This time, Danny is only halfway up the stairs when the door opens and Sam comes waltzing in, lockpick in hand. "Thank _god_ you called when you did, I don't know how much longer I could listen to my mom tell me I used to look _so nice_ in pink."

Sam, very much unlike Tucker, has clearly been awake awhile. She's wearing a white crop top underneath a black sheer long sleeves shirt, a black skirt with white stripes, and matte black lipstick. Her entire outfit screams _I'm stuck with my parents for a month_.

Tucker raises a brow. "Since when did you learn how to pick locks?"

Sam shrugs. "When my roommate kept locking me out. Seemed easier."

"Easier than just calling your roommate?" Danny asks.

"Danny, if you met the bitch, _you'd know._ " Sam pats him on the shoulder and walks into the kitchen, pulling out a chair. "So, what's this 'emergency' that has to get done right now before your family gets back? Like, please tell me you two idiots didn't accidentally kill someone."

Danny rolls his eyes. "Very funny." He moves to sit down beside her, giving her a shit-eating grin. "We kind of… need something."

Sam leans into her left hand looking very unimpressed. "Well? Get to the point."

Tucker joins them at the table and takes the reigns. "We need this," he says, passing her his phone.

"Seriously? You called me over here to ask me to buy some geeky electronics?" Sam says, only a little irritated. "And I thought you were _so_ excited to see me," she adds, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"No, not technically," Danny says before Tucker can put his foot in his mouth again. "I mean, yes, but! We have good reason, I swear." Danny pauses. Sam motions him to continue. "I'm trying to fix something my parents built. I think they're _actually_ doing something here."

This catches Sam's attention. "Help the Fentons before they make fools of themselves _and_ spite my parents' wallet in the process? Shit, why not."

Somehow, and maybe it was the pointed stare aimed right at him, Danny got the impression that when she said 'Fentons,' she meant _him._

.

By some sort of witchcraft only extreme wealth can pull off, it arrives within three hours, a cube no more than a foot across each side.

" _That's_ the generator?" Danny says immediately. "Do I even want to know how they make something so small produce so much power?"

Tucker shrugs. "Probably not."

Sam finishes signing a document for man that delivered it, who Danny understands to be someone the Manson family employs. He takes the document when she finishes, giving her a look like _please don't ask me to do this again_ , then pauses. "Here, you might be wanting these," he says, pulling off a pair of heavy white gloves.

Danny cocks a brow. "Tucker, just what _am_ I putting in my basement?"

Tucker leans over to pick up the cube, pointedly ignoring him.

"You know what, forget I asked. It can't be worse than literally anything else my parents keep in the lab. One of these days I'm gonna come home to a smoldering pit, and I'm not even going to be surprised."

The man finally leaves and Sam turns to Tucker. "Did he just give me fucking lead lined gloves?"

Danny shoots a look at Tucker. "Tucker, if my house blows up because of _you_ I'm suing."

Tucker laughs. "Just… don't think about it?" he says. "I _promise_ it's safe."

Back in the basement, Sam lounges in a chair with a battered copy of _Carmilla_ while Tucker and Danny finish installing the generator, which turns out to look like nothing more than a shiny metal box.

_Problem A, solved._

"So… what are we going to do about problem B?" he asks.

Tucker raises his hands noncommittally. "We? _That's_ definitely a you problem. I told you, I'm not a quantum engineer, and no offense dude, but neither are you. And sorry, but even Sam can't make that solution appear out of thin air."

Sam laughs in the background. "Yeah, sorry Danny, but that trick is only going to work once. I'm _definitely_ going to have to spend the week groveling to my parents so I can keep my credit card." She pauses, a dark look crossing her eyes with an evil smile. "I can't wait to see them throw a fit that I dared to do something without permission."

"You uh, gonna need help with that Sam?" Danny asks.

She gives a quick shake of her head. "Nope. I was _'investing in scientific discovery_ ,' even they'll have trouble finding fault with me. Well, as long as I don't say your name."

He laughs. "Feel free to hide here if you need a break."

"I already am," Sam says, leaning back into the chair to read her book.

.

Tucker is the first to leave, due back at his own house for a family dinner. Sam stays, watching Danny fiddle with the machine. A couple hours after Tucker left, she gives him a strange look. "You know, Tucker and I give you a lot of shit, but if anyone's going get that thing working, it's going to be you."

Danny nearly snorts with laughter. "I appreciate the faith, but there's no way."

Sam shuts her book and sets it gently on the floor. "I'm serious, Danny. You've always been _really_ good at this sort of thing, even the stuff that's way beyond me. You get it from your parents."

He can't help it this time as he starts laughing. "No offense, but I don't think a C and D student is going to be making breakthroughs in quantum physics any time soon, Sam."

She frowns, pushing a lock of black hair out of her face. "Stop beating yourself up. You've never done that well in school, and it's never stopped you from being really damn smart."

He sighs as he crosses his arms and avoids her knowing stare, afraid she'd see straight through him. "I'm _really_ not. I mean, have you seen Jazz? That's 'really damn smart.' She's never gotten anything under an A- in her life, and I'm not sure I've ever really seen her _not_ studying something." Danny turns away, returning to some inefficient wiring he'd been adjusting.

"You don't have to be your sister to be smart, you know," Sam says.

Danny doesn't respond.

"I'm just saying, you've been surrounded by this stuff all your life. You know way more than you give yourself credit for." When Danny remains silent, Sam takes it as permission to continue. "Fine. Answer a question for me, Danny."

He turns around to give her an irritated stare.

"Where's your parents' notes about the quantum super-whatever-the-fuck problem?"

Danny grimaces, because they both know _there aren't any_. "That doesn't prove your point, you know. Just because there's no notes doesn't mean they didn't make it really obvious in everything."

It's Sam's turn to laugh, leaving Danny rolling his eyes and turning his attention back to tinkering.

Eventually she calms down and catches her breath before tossing a pen at his head.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!"

Sam has another evil grin on her face. "Normal people don't consider quantum _anything_ obvious, Danny. Honestly, for someone as bright as you, you can be _really_ thickheaded."

Danny starts screwing the panel he'd lifted back into place, now satisfied with the wires and carefully ignoring Sam.

This time an eraser finds his skull and Danny turns to glare. "Seriously, again?!"

"You're ignoring me because you don't want to admit I'm right," she says. Sam walks over to retrieve the pen and eraser, patting Danny's head in the process. "Look, I have to go home, okay? Promise me you'll think about what I said?"

Danny frowns and holds the back of his head after Sam lifts her hand. "Fine, I promise."

Sam nods, making her way towards the stairs. "Oh, and call me when you fix this thing so I can tell you 'I told you so!'"

He groans. "You're insufferable Sam!"

.

Danny loses track of time as hours begin to pass. At some point he changes into his lab suit to ensure none of his clothing gets stuck in the machinery, although he takes the gloves on and off for the more delicate parts. He pours himself into messing with the guts of the machine, determined _not_ to think about what Sam had said yet. He'd much rather focus on cleaning up some of his dad's handiwork ( _seriously, Dad, do you realize how messy this is?_ ) and admiring most of his mother's, though she still has a few issues he reminds her about time and again.

Every time Sam's words echo in his mind, he pries open a new panel of machinery to work on in retribution, attempting to constructively take out his… Anger? Frustration? _Whatever_ it is he's feeling.

Slowly but surely he works his way deeper into the portal. The machinery gets gradually more complicated as he seems to be reaching its heart, but he doesn't mind-- the more complicated it is, the more focus it takes, and the less he has to think about Sam. As things become more complicated, Danny finds himself adjusting more and more machinery.

When he finally reaches the back wall he carefully removes pieces here and there until he can see the _true_ heart of the machine, something his parents were so sure of they hadn't even mentioned it-- the only reference to it that he'd seen had been in the blueprint itself.

It's a circular glass container of pure ectoplasm no larger than his head, filtered over and over again to ensure there isn't a single impurity left.

"Oh my god," he whispers.

His parents have told him the properties of ectoplasm before, especially in regards to engineering ghost tech, but Danny has never seen _anything_ like this before. He can't even begin to imagine how long it took to get enough ectoplasm. _Maybe that's why they waited so long to try again._

Danny _very_ carefully begins removing the container to set it aside, examining what it's been set into. There's thin silicone tubes leading away from the glass across the back wall like a spiderweb. On the top and bottom of the glass container are small caps, ready to open when the portal is powered on to allow the ectoplasm to flow through the machine's veins.

His parents' overlooking of the ectoplasm system makes Danny suspect that it's the root of the issue, the final factor in what is stopping the machine from working. It'd make sense-- it's highly theoretical and has only been successfully built once, assuming his parents are closely following the one they'd mentioned from college.

Danny runs his fingers gingerly over the tubing, methodically checking every connection, every piece of electronics it runs through. Deep in the recesses of the back of the portal, he sees a small hole filled with more tubing, appearing to lead to a secondary vein system. Danny squeezes his arm into the opening, unable to reach the end even with his fingers completely stretched out. He blindly feels the edges before finding a small handle and pulls on it.

A warning alarm plays and Danny quickly removes his hand and backs out of the portal, watching as the entire back section of the portal spins 180 degrees to allow access to the second set of tubing. _So_ that's _how they plan on maintaining that without pulling the whole thing apart._ Second set of tubing, second round of methodical checks. No matter how closely he looks, however, something's bothering him.

_The tubing is too thin,_ he realizes. Ectoplasm at room temperature is _thick_ , not unlike chilled maple syrup. Raising its temperature slowly lowers its viscosity which lets it flow faster, and by his parents calculations, the machine will heat the ectoplasm in the glass to 375°F. But judging by how much tubing there is and knowing that ectoplasm loses heat rapidly, he finally realizes the problem.

"It's not hot enough to finish flowing back to the center to get reheated while maintaining the speed required to run the machine," he whispers to himself.

Two hours pass as Danny rigs up a new system. It's designed firstly to monitor the heat of the ectoplasm at the tubing farthest from the glass and secondly to adjust the glass's heat to maintain temperature in the entire system. Between the fluctuating heat of the glass and the heat from the machine itself, he's pretty sure the ectoplasm system should run exactly as his parents had _intended_.

All that's left is to put the glass of ectoplasm back into the center of the machine, wait for his parents to check his work, and hope they don't do something like ban him permanently from the lab for messing with their prized invention.

As carefully as he had removed it, Danny lifts the glass and gently slides it forward. It locks into place with a _click_ . Almost immediately, he smells something strange, like the scent after a thunderstorm. Green ectoplasm begins leaking into the tubes. _What the fuck?_ he thinks, taking a step back.

_Flash!_

Danny is knocked backwards. He feels like he's falling in slow motion, feet off the ground. _Something_ is so bright it blinds him. His ears ring. His skin burns, then tingles, then he feels nothing.

_What…?_

He feels weightless. His head throbs and his eyes burn but he can't seem to close them. He can barely breathe but it's an afterthought, it doesn't bother him.

The pain comes second, the initial shock wearing off and his senses feeling less numb. His skin scorches. He sees a few flecks of green amongst the golden light, sparks of electricity flying around him. As he finally manages to close his eyes, gold turns deep blue and green turns magenta, the afterimage seared into his vision. He is a mixture of numbness and pain, feels everything and nothing at once. Electricity surges through his body, the current coursing under his skin. He can't tell if he's shaking or completely still. His heart beats rapidly. He feels warm, then cold, then warm again.

He thinks he hits the ground.

He can't tell if he's breathing anymore.

His heart stops.

As burning pain ripples through him and his body starts convulsing, Danny screams.


End file.
